Mindful Gail May Newsletter
- gailcalthrop
- May 11
- 6 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Welcome to my May Newsletter. I hope you have been able to enjoy some of the recent warm weather and can feel how Spring is already tumbling into summer.
At my last event, co-leading with Martina Mula, Mind, Body and Being Presence day, the weather was warm and soothing and we greatly enjoyed sharing our slow, unhurried unwinding approaches and ways to help with all aspects of wellbeing. Gentle, releasing stretches and movement session, walking thoughtfully in Nature, stopping and resting with silence in the embrace of the trees as the sunlight dappled through the green canopy above us, and basking in the blue shimmering light of sunlit bluebells. An abundant lunch, followed by a wonderful teaching of soothing self-massage techniques and skills that led us into a variety of healing mindful meditation practices and activities. It was such a lovely stepping into life's moments kind of day, full of kind and spacious attention, a real boost for our wellbeing.
Feedback from the day:
‘My body feels mine again’
‘Reminded me of how much I love being in Nature’
‘Slowing down and being, de-stressing’
‘Tennis ball’ used in massage skills'
‘Time for myself’
‘Thoroughly enjoyed the whole day’
‘Self-massage and stretching’ improving joint mobility and flexibility'
‘Listening to your body, letting go. Loved the walk.’
‘Calmness, relaxation self-care’.
Being mindfully aware in Nature is so good for all aspect of our health!
I have found being in Nature is a natural way to be mindful. Nature does not hurry or worry or procrastinate. It follows the rhythms and ways that grow, support and nourish the cycles of life, so promoting thrive mode and reducing the survive mechanisms, the latter being that which we as humans in our modern world, seem to live by constantly.
Research shows us that taking just a 30 minute walk outside three times a week is as effective for relieving symptoms of major depression as antidepressant medication. This study was done by Duke University.
Another study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that going for a walk in nature 3-4 times a week showed:
33% lowering of anti anxiety meds,
36% lower odds of using blood pressure pills
33% reduction of anti depressants
26% reduction of using asthma meds.
‘We must turn to Nature itself, to the observations of the body in health and disease to learn the truth’
Hippocrates
It’s rebellious, in a way, to choose joy, to love your life.
Its much easier and much more common to be miserable.
We could just live our normal, day-to-day lives, saving all the good living for someday, but I think its our job to live each day like a special occasion. Because, we have been given a gift.
By Shauna Nisquist
This poem reflects how the mind is so busy on keeping us locked into the negativity bias. So it does feel liberating to ‘choose joy’, to celebrate our ‘gift’ as much as we can. Mindfulness is the tool, the skill that helps us do and be this. It is the practice of being with the inevitability of change, small and large. Instead of chasing the big, flashbulb moments that scream ‘this is success’, notice when just one tiny move, or step, or action, that activates progress, opens a door previously unseen, creates a new pathway. These are often the ‘life changing’ good moments that are not epic pushes or high octane hits. We do not need to wait for such moments: we can let the ordinary moments become tiny extraordinary moments of newness, feel the gentle tug of awareness that provide a catalyst of change without the exhaustion of adrenaline and cortisol.
Pause when something calls you to your senses. Catch the whispers on the breeze, feel the solace of silence, hear the calm words that say, ‘try this, or try that’, even as you feel driven or overwhelmed by everything.
MINDFUL TOOLKIT:
Try this to change your approach when life feels scattered;
Pick one small thing that you have been pushing away/ avoiding/ procrastinating about:
Make it into 2 or 3 micro actions
Make a time today to do them, not tomorrow
Make sure it’s a time space of 5 minute max. Enjoy the feeling of starting with one small thing. This lets in the endorphins dopamine and oxytocin.
Repeat the same tomorrow, and the following day, and again, again and again.
Now you are moving, you are not stuck in indecision or procrastination, you are flowing with change. Remember we are not about perfection or absolute ‘must be like this’, it is about the flow of the journey, taking small individual actions that shift your life, this is where and how you create space for changes to happen. You only have one precious life, start now.
What will you do with your one precious life?
Mindful Events Coming up:
Monthly On-Line Mindful Drop In
Thursday 15th March 7-8pm:.
Just £10 per session or £35 for four booked sessions.
Finding regular solace and calm with my monthly Mindfulness On-Line Drop Ins.
For a mindfulness session from the comfort of your home, join me on THURSDAY 15th May, 7pm-8pm and give yourself the gift of kind attention, to connect to the healing stillness of kind connection and compassion that strengthens and empowers our resilience and wellbeing. When we practise mindfulness, we nourish and support ourselves in the busy life we lead, creating space to manage our life helpfully.
A Mindful Evening
(set in a beautiful rural location)
June 20th, 7-9pm
Come and find ways that mindfulness can help you in your life. You only need one minute to start your helpful mindful journey. Learn small impactful ways to let anxiety and stress ease and the nourishing and supportive in! Top up your established practice. Open to everyone, new to mindfulness, who practices mindfulness, would like to know more or just plain curious.
Future Dates for the dairy:
In June, 7th and 8th, I will be in the Wild and Well area at Hellens Garden Festival. I always enjoy sharing mindfulness sessions in this amazing Festival which is full of so much to experience and do for all the family. Have a look at their website and if you can, plan your day there and come to one of my sessions, 2.30 every day. Tickets can be bought only online (here), so make sure you book soon!
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver
I hope you have a lovely month of May. If you have any questions, please do ask me.
Kindest everythings,
Gail
YOU TUBE
I have now added some new videos, please check them out!
I also recorded a few meditation videos during Covid and put them onto a YouTube channel. Their content can be helpful now as it was then, so have a look if you would like to follow guided practices. Follow the link HERE!
What I Offer...
Get in touch
Mindfulness crept into my life about 12 years ago after I completed a Mindfulness Based Reduction for Stress Course [MBSR], offered by my workplace, a Hospice. The teachings touched a need in me to want to experience life in a calmer and more enjoyable way; to find ways to be present helpfully to the way my life was unfolding rather than engage in battling with the automatic behaviours with repeating conflicting thoughts and emotions, with all the attendant emotional and physical fallouts.
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